


Us and Them

by Aonashe



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood and Gore, Dubious Science, Horror, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 20:49:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18677149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aonashe/pseuds/Aonashe
Summary: A group of scientists finally develop a successful attempt at teleporting an apple. After multiple failures, it comes out fine, but during the second trial it comes back with a bite taken out of it.





	Us and Them

_He darted down the dimly lit and flickering hall, the only sound was the sound of his heels against the floor and his heavy breathing. Tears of pure and unadulterated fear pooled in the creases of his eyes as he skirted at the corner at the end of the corridor, going whichever way his brain saw fit for escape. Despite his mind screaming at him not to, he looked over his shoulder anyway. Darkness swallowed up the end of the hallway, only occasionally illuminated by the flicker of the broken lights. His chest tightening, he immediately whipped his head back frontwards and pushed himself as far as he could._

_When he came to a dead end, he almost ran head first into it, but stopped himself at the last second, streaking the soles of his shoes against the floor. He was faced with an elevator. Almost immediately, he started to rapidly tap the caller button, as if that would make it come any faster. After a few seconds of waiting, when the elevator didn't come, he started the tapping process again, this time taking quick glances behind him every few seconds. Finally, finally! The elevator came. As soon as the doors open, he almost tripped over his feet trying to get in. After the doors closed, he breathed a sigh of relief._

_While his heart-rate was slowing back to normal, he felt his limbs start to shake from the pent up anxiety and stress of running. When he started to relax a bit, that's when he felt something fall onto his cheek._

_He snapped out of his trance, bringing up a hand to touch his cheek. He glanced down at his hand and found that a droplet of something coal black struck his cheek. His heart pounded in his chest. Slowly, he brought his head up to look at the ceiling of the elevator._

 

_*******_

Anton Lovelace startled himself awake and found himself staring strait at his desk. He looked around, confused as to why he wasn't in the elevator, as if he expected the black liquid to swallow him up. Though, a lapse of reason washed over him and he realized that it was nothing more than a dream. He sighed softly and lifted his cheek off the desk. It was apparently morning, as it shined through the windows of his apartment. To him, it felt like it's been only five minutes since he got back from Hayworth labs, after testing the progress on the teleportation device. Anton had loved the game  _Portal_   ever since he could remember, and devoted most of his studies and even his job to developing the first "portal gun". And, well, it's not exactly turning out as he would hope. Failure, after failure, after failure, occurred during testing and he even had a session end...explosively. He was on the last straw with the project, which had been going on for about seven years at this point. He just got back yesterday from a particularly tiring session, as he stayed overtime to help repair the portal gun. He guessed that explained him waking up on his desk. 

 He glanced down at his watch (Yes, outdated) and nearly went into cardiac arrest. He was nearly late for work. Almost immediately, he sprang up from his seat, grabbed his messenger bag and threw a granola bar and his note book into it, pulled on a sweater and ran out the door. 

He barreled through the hall of the apartment complex until he stopped at the floors elevator. His patience was running thin, so as soon as he pushed the call button he didn't stop tapping it, knowing that wouldn't make it come faster. At this moment, he got a nauseating feeling of deja vu, as his mind descended back into his dream. The black liquid, the darkness swallowing up the halls..

 _'No,'_ He thought to himself. _'It was just a dream, nothing more.'_

The elevator came with a "ding" and Anton wasted no time getting into it. He pushed the button for the lobby and waited for the doors to close, seething with impatience. The doors finally closed and the elevator started to descend. It was a peaceful feeling, Anton thought. He closed his eyes and ran his hands through his already graying hair. It felt like an incredible weight was saddled on his shoulders, one that caused him to hunch over as he walked in his mind. It felt as if he carried the whole world on his shoulders, since he knew that if this ever worked, it would change technology forever.

In almost no time at all, he heard the elevator stop with the same ringing noise. He moved to get out of the doors, but caught sight of the monitor and stepped back, since he was only on the 10th floor.

A little boy no more than ten with a backpack scooted into the elevator, probably on his way to catch the bus for whatever school he goes to. When the doors shut, the boy looked up at Anton, his eyes filled with recognition and almost an admiring look. Anton felt the child's stare crawl up his spine and turned to look at him, giving him a friendly smile then looked forwards again.

"You're Doctor Lovelace, aren't you?" The child piped up.

Anton looked back at the boy, a little startled. He wasn't exactly famous and people don't usually ask for him out in public, so that was unexpected.

"Yes I am...why'd you ask?"

"My daddy told me about you. He said you're trying to make a portal gun! I love Portal," The child smiled at him. "My daddy says you're a 'quack'. But I like you."

It took Anton a while to realize that his mouth was open. He promptly shut it and tried to fake a smile to the child. How had he known about the portal gun? Everything that happens in Hayworth labs was _highly confidential._ There was no way someone could know about it! Unless...

Anton had to keep from gasping.

Had someone got a hold on one of the videos of the testing process?

"Where did your father find out about this?" He asked, unintentionally forceful.

The boy shrugged. "I dunno. He just told me he saw a video online about it."

__'Jesus Christ.'_ _

At that very moment, the monitor showed that they were at the lobby and the doors opened. Anton gave a quick nod to the boy and darted out the door, breaking a cold sweat out on his forehead. This situation had escalated, hadn't it? 

 

 

_*******_

Anton sighed softly and made his way up the steps to Hayworth labs, the incident with the little boy still lingering like a thorn in his side. The project was exposed and being ridiculed, from what he could tell, should he deny it or should he just ignore it? He didn't know. They even had video evidence! How could you say "no" to that? 

He got to the double doors and pressed his ID to the sensor. A moment later the doors opened with an agreeing "hiss", the familiar smell of chemicals and burning rubber meeting him upon entrance. He waved a friendly "hello" to the clerk at the front lobby and made his way past the doors in the back, where the main lab was. Eventually, he made it to the wing that his team had reserved and made a b-line straight for his co-director. 

"Dr. Lemas, I need to talk to you!" He said. 

She immediately turned around to him, her face stern and her arms crossed. "You're late, Dr. Lovelace." 

Anton glanced down at his watch and muttered a faint curse. "I'm sorry...I got held up. Though, I found something I need to talk to you about." 

"What is it?" 

"It's...about the project. Footage from one of the tests had been leaked onto the internet." 

Her face went to something short of livid and he immediately tried talking again. "I don't know who did it, but the project is being ridiculed and spread around like wildfire. My thinking is that we should ignore it, denying it would only bring more damage. What do you think?" 

She tried to calm her expression, but ultimately ended up pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yes...yes, I think that would be best. Let's just carry on with the project and ignore it. There's nothing more we can do." 

Anton nodded in agreement and went over to go check if the repairs on the portal gun held correctly before he went up to his office. A weight was still present in his chest. 

 

_*******_

A knock sounded on Anton's office door. He sighed softly in relief from the noise, actually glad to have a break from reading the reports on the maintenance of the project. Reading about failure never really brings his spirits up on his childhood dream. 

He got up and went to go answer the door, and found Dr. Lemas there. 

"We're ready to start the testing session on the project. Whenever you're ready, let's hope for the best." she said and departed, not waiting for his response. 

He couldn't help but feel the pressure in his chest worsen from that. He honestly didn't know if he was ready to see his dream crash and burn right before his eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time. After that contemplative moment, he sighed and grabbed his goat, slipping it on as he headed for the testing area. 

_*******_

Anton entered the testing area and put on a cheery smile, despite how he was actually feeling. "Alright lads, let's give it another go!" 

Fake whooping sounded from the rest of the team as they went forward towards the observation dome, notebooks in hand. Anton couldn't help but give a little chuckle, even if he was mostly dead inside, and grabbed his notebook as well, joining Dr. Lemas's side in the front of the observation dome. 

The door to it opened and shut with a "clunk", as Dr. Rydell, also known as "The Guinea Pig", walked in with the portal gun mounted onto his arm. Anton couldn't help but feel a sudden twinge of affection for the gun. His love of _Portal_  was brought to life by this, and he felt the strong urge to mount it to his own arm. Just so he could hold the device that he cared for as much as a mother would care for her firstborn child. 

The apple they usually used for testing was placed on top of a stool near a concrete column, where the portal would be shot, same to the other side. Rydell raised the portal gun after powering it on and pointed it towards the concrete column, preparing to fire the portal. Anton leaned closer to the glass, his sphincter puckered from the tension and the stress of what seemed to him like the entire world resting on his shoulders. 

With sharp inhale, Rydell pulled back on the portal gun to fire the portal, but an plasmatic current ran up along the shaft of the gun due to overload and up towards his arm, making him immediately detach it from his arm,. It fell to the floor with a cringe inducing "clunk". 

Anton's heart sank. He knew deep down that this would happen, but it never failed to disappoint and sadden him in the end. It seemed as though the entire team took a collective sigh as a few went into the testing area to help gather the portal gun. Another day, another percentage of Anton's sanity flushing down the drain. He wrote down in his notebook:  _"It. failed."_ in his notebook under the notes of the test, circling it once, twice, three times. 

Lemas rested a hand on Anton's shoulder. "Don't worry, Anton, we'll get 'em next time," She said sympathetically. 

"We'd better," Anton replied, the weight in his chest so much he thought his chest would collapse. 

He sheathed his notebook into his coat and followed the rest of the team out the door, not looking forward to overseeing the reports of the repairs and adjustments made on the portal gun. He just wanted to go back to his apartment and collapse, to just sleep the day away, to drown his sorrows in a cup of ramen noodles. 

He just sighed and went over to his office again and tried not to shut the door so hard that it would obliterate the hinges. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Hayworth Labs is in fact named after the lab from We Happy Few.


End file.
